LONDON -- NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), announced it will investment approximately $6 million as part of its planned expansion in India's ATM market.
Speaking in Mumbai today, NCR chairman and chief executive officer Lars Nyberg announced that the recent opening of an ATM manufacturing facility at Pondicherry will be followed by the completion of a larger manufacturing plant and a professional services center in Bangalore by September 2003.
The Pondicherry facility will enable NCR to meet local demand immediately prior to the completion of its Bangalore facility, which will produce ATM hardware. The professional services center will develop services and software for the Indian market.
The new facilities will be geared to meet the needs of the Indian market and will have the capacity to produce 8,000 to 10,000 ATMs annually.
According to the NCR releas, the Indian financial self-service market is currently one of the world's fastest-growing markets. The number of ATMs in India has increased from just 500 in 1998 to around 7,500 today. The market continues to expand as banks and other deployers develop their networks to serve India's expanding retail banking sector.
"Developing our own facilities gives us the competitive advantage of a dedicated, skilled workforce that can rapidly customize our products and services for customers in these high-growth markets," Nyberg said in the release. "We expect our workforce in India to more than double to around 1,000 employees in the next 12 to 18 months."
